cinnamon & copenhagen
If there is one thing you should know about the Danish population it is that we will get very upset if you take our beloved cinnamon away from us. We may seem cold from outside but we adore cinnamon. When people somewhere somehow started talking about cutting down on the use of cinnamon in cinnamon buns a bunch of us just lost it – me included. Danes just LOVE cinnamon – almost as much as we love licorice which is on its climb (sadly, according to me as I’m not all that fond of its far too pungent taste). Appropriately enough, however, cinnamon has never lost its spot amongst the favourite spices in the Danish supermarkets – and it reveals a whole lot about the population.
An avid Danish word I use every day is Hygge. There is no appropriate translation for this word in English but it means to feel cosy, be comfortable and just enjoying sitting together with whomever you are sitting with. Hygge is what defines Copenhagen for me. Why? Read on and you’ll see!
The Drinks
If you do not enjoy sitting down and enjoying a cup of chai, coffee...you name it, then Copenhagen is not the place for you. There are an endless amount of cafés in and around Copenhagen. We are not privileged with a Starbucks on every street but we manage fine – actually we manage more than fine. We have chain coffee stores (one of which I work in) but we also, and thankfully, have smaller, cuter and much more cosy (or should I say hyggelige?) cafés that lie in the corners of streets where great drinks are served in light of the many secretive, enlightened and lovely conversations the customers tend to be engrossed in. You could end up sitting next to a war veteran or a blogger – who knows?
Now there are a lot of cute cafés around in the various streets of Copenhagen but if you ask me there are three that you have to go to – and I mean HAVE to go to. Not only is the atmosphere of them ideal but they make delicious coffee and have exquisitely decorated cakes that will make you want to come back for more.
The first café that has an ever so special place in my heart is La Glace. La Glace is a well-known and almost antique patisserie where they have beautiful – and I mean breathtaking – cakes known to us Danes as lagkager. Now if your wallet isn’t stock full or if you are not prepared to pay a little more than usual then you should probably not venture into their salon. But if you take the fall you will be very happy that you did. The décor for one is stunning and the cakes are delicious. Coffee and tea come at a steady rate and the women who work there are all friendly.
Another café that pops in mind when someone asks me where they should go for a cosy time in Copenhagen (which sadly is rare) is Paludan Book Café. Situated on one of my favourite streets in Copenhagen, namely Studiestræde, this café lets you set inbetween shelves stock full of old books.